Kentucky basketball completes comeback in second half to stun No. 24 Tennessee

Ben Roberts, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jan 17, 2026

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In each of the past three basketball seasons, the Kentucky Wildcats walked into Thompson-Boling Arena as underdogs and left as upset winners.

The Cats did it again Saturday afternoon.

Denzel Aberdeen and Otega Oweh hit layups in the final minute to lead Kentucky back from a 17-point deficit, and the Cats stunned No. 24 Tennessee with an 80-78 victory.

Tennessee’s Ja’Kobi Gillespie intentionally missed a free throw with two seconds left, but after the Vols corralled the offensive rebound, Malachi Moreno blocked Jaylen Carry’s putback attempt, and Kentucky escaped Knoxville with the win.

Coach Mark Pope’s team improved to 12-6 on the season and 3-2 in SEC play with the win.

Kentucky started the second half in an 11-point hole, and that deficit grew by two with Gillespie’s basket in the opening minute of the period to give the Vols a 44-31 lead.

From there, the Wildcats slowly chipped away at the Tennessee lead.

Kentucky whittled the Volunteers’ advantage to four points on three separate occasions in the first 10 minutes of the second half. On each of those occasions, Tennessee immediately answered with a bucket of its own.

Oweh’s 3-pointer with 7:52 left — he had missed all seven of his shots from the field before that — cut the UT lead to 65-62, the first time it had been a one-possession game since before the first TV timeout of the afternoon.

After Tennessee answered with a bucket at the other end, Malachi Moreno completed an and-one play to make it a 67-65 game. Tennessee freshman Nate Ament responded to that one with an and-one of his own, and the Volunteers were up by five again with 7:16 remaining.

Kentucky stayed within striking distance from there, and the Cats cut Tennessee’s lead to 76-75 on a floater by Mouhamed Dioubate with less than two minutes left. A short time later, Oweh hit one of two free throws to cut Tennessee’s lead to 77-76, setting up the finish.

Denzel Aberdeen scored 18 of his team-high 22 points in the second half. Oweh, Collin Chandler and Jasper Johnson each had 12 points, while Dioubate added 10 points.

Gillespie had 24 points, eight assists and two steals for Tennessee.

Kentucky got off to an inauspicious start to the first half, falling into a double-digit hole before the second TV timeout of the game and going down by as many as 17 points before halftime.

It was the fourth time in five SEC games that UK has trailed by at least 10 points in the first half. The exception was last week’s loss to Missouri, which led the Cats by seven points in the first half. On Saturday, the Vols went up 18-8 on a 3-pointer with 14:15 left before the break. A little later, a Tennessee layup made it 20-8, completing an 11-0 run for coach Rick Barnes’ team.

Johnson was a highlight in the first half for Kentucky — he scored 12 points off the bench in the game’s first 20 minutes — but the Cats had a tough time getting going, in general. UK went nearly eight minutes late in the half with no made field goals, falling behind 41-24 before Johnson finally ended that skid with a bucket with just 2:40 left in the half.

That shot ignited a brief, 7-0 run for Kentucky, but the Cats were down 42-31 at halftime.

Two of the stars from Kentucky’s comeback win over LSU on Wednesday night did little in the early going against the Volunteers. Oweh had only two points — with just two shot attempts, both misses — in the first half Saturday, while Aberdeen spent most of the period on the bench after picking up two fouls in the first two minutes and eight seconds of the game.

The Wildcats were a 6.5-point underdog at tipoff.

Tennessee fell to 12-6 on the season and 2-3 in SEC play with the result.

Kentucky was playing without highly touted forward Jayden Quaintance for the third consecutive game. Quaintance, a projected lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft, has been dealing with swelling in his surgically repaired knee, according to Pope, and he also missed Kentucky's victories over Mississippi State and LSU in recent days.

Quaintance, who had surgery for a torn ACL last March, made his Kentucky debut against St. John’s on Dec. 20 and has appeared in four games so far for the Wildcats.

Kentucky was also playing its second game since starting point guard Jaland Lowe was ruled out for the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury.

The Wildcats will return home for two SEC games next week.

Kentucky hosts Texas on Wednesday night in Rupp Arena, with Ole Miss coming to Lexington,Ky., next Saturday.

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